Finding Herobrine
by Freezie05
Summary: Steve joins a new Minecraft server and makes new friends, but it is not as expected.
1. Chapter 1

I've never played Minecraft on multiplayer before. My single player worlds have all been a failure, as I would usually die on the third or fourth day. I had to build my house out of dirt as well.

This is why I've decided I'm going to start playing on multiplayer. I figure if there are lots of other players around me, they could give tips and help me with my surviving and building skills. The server I found online is supposed to be a world with lots of cities around, to represent real life. As soon as I found the server, I immediately logged onto Minecraft, typed in the address, and clicked the "Join" button. Messages popped up on the screen as the server was loading.

Connecting to the server…

Logging in…

Downloading Terrain

After waiting for a few minutes for the world to load, I finally spawned.


	2. Chapter 2

The second I spawned into the world, I was amazed. I had spawned in a tall, colorful building, and I could see clearly outside that there were many skyscrapers around me, as well as beautiful mountains.

There was also a sign in front of me at my spawn point.

"Go behind the diamond building to the left and climb down for more information." It read.

I knew what it was talking about when it mentioned a diamond building. It was on the left of the building I had spawned in, and was labeled "The Diamond Inn" which I found fancy.

I went behind The Diamond Inn to discover a small hole with a ladder. I climbed down the ladder to find a very massive and dark room with a low ceiling. There were lots of signs hanging around as well. Most signs said, "Spawn to" and then a city name, while other signs simply said the name of a city.

The only sign in the room that wasn't on the wall was in the middle of the room, and it read, "Right-click any sign to go to its destination." So I decided to look for a sign. One was labeled, "Spawn to Sunnyside City." It sounded like a nice name, so I right-clicked. I was immediately teleported back the tall colorful building, at the same place I spawned.

I didn't want to go back to that room. The city looked like a nice place to live in, anyway, so I decided I was going to live there.

I started to walk around the city and explore it. There were many amazing buildings around, like a library, a restaurant, and an ice rink in the south.

After walking around for about 10 minutes, I heard a voice call my name.

"Steve!" They yelled. Yes, my name is Steve, and no, I will not explain the long story of how I got that username. Anyway, when I heard them call my name, I couldn't believe my ears. There was another player in the server! I thought I was the only one there, because the server wasn't very popular and I didn't see any people while exploring the city.

I turned around to face the man. He had a creeper skin, was wearing a tuxedo, and looked dangerous. I got a nervous feeling in my stomach as he walked towards me, and was prepared for any trouble he was going to cause.

"Hello, Steve. My name is Freezie04." He said. "I am the mayor of Sunnyside City, and the operator of this server." I let out a sigh of relief and disappointment. I was happy it was the operator, and that he was a good guy, but sad to find out he wasn't a random civilian I could talk to.

"Hi." I managed to blurt out. I'm a shy person, so it was normal for me to talk this way.

"Would you like a job in this server? It would allow you to make money, and you could grow into a big success on this server."

"What kind of jobs do you have?" I asked.

"I have a job open for a miner. There aren't very many miners in this city, and we need the diamonds. What do you say?"

"Okay. I'll take the job." I said, hardly paying attention to what I was doing.

"Great!" He replied. "Here's your very own wooden pickaxe to start with. If you get cobblestone, you can upgrade that to a stone pickaxe. Have fun with your job!" He handed me a wooden pickaxe and ran off, and the second he left, I started walking down to the mine.


	3. Chapter 3

When I arrived at the mine, it was dark. There were torches lit up, but not very many, so I couldn't travel very far. I found lots of iron and gold ore, but unfortunately, I could not mine them with a wooden pickaxe. So I mined stone and coal instead. There weren't many monsters down there as well, which was good for me, because if there were, I probably would've died.

When night came, I was relieved to finally leave the mine. That meant I had to survive in the city without a home, though, so I was kind of scared of the hostile mobs. I'm just praying I'll live to see my salary.

The first few nights of working in the mine haven't been great so far. Every day I would go to work and end up dying on the job, and having to start all over again. I would have 60$ right now, but since I lose everything when I die, I don't have anything right now. Except for the wooden pickaxe, though, since Freezie04 gave me a new one every time I died. I could tell he was annoyed by my failure.

I sat down on the wooden stair benches of the park and started to get really sad. Was it possible to survive here without being a complete genius who has lots of money?

After a few minutes of sitting on the stairs, I heard someone walk over to the park I was in. I didn't see them with my head down, but I could hear them eating something, which made me wish I had food.

I waited for them to go away until they finally noticed me and walked over to me.

"Uh, you okay, buddy?" I heard them say. I didn't respond.

"Talk to me." They said.

"…How do you survive here?" I finally said. "You need to survive to get money, but you need money to survive? Who came up with this system?"

"I'm guessing you're a beginner." They said.

I finally lifted my head up to face them. "Yeah, I sort of am."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you." He said. "I suppose I could give you one of my swords."

"Wait… really?"

"Sure. If you're really struggling to survive here and it seems that hopeless, then you could probably use a sword. It's made of wood, but I think it'll do." He got out a sword made of wood. It looked amazing to me.

"Th-thank you. Thank you so much." I said as I grabbed it. I really was grateful.

"No problem." He said. "It's always nice to help a person out, as my Mom says."

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

"Alright, I get it. You're welcome." He started to walk off while I admired my new sword.

"Wait!" I stopped him. "What's your name?"

"Rainbowcreepers101." He said. "But you can call me Rainbowcreepers."

"Thank you, Rainbowcreepers."


	4. Chapter 4

I am now more grateful for that wooden sword than I ever was; it has done so much for me. Not only can I now defend myself from the monsters, but I was able to put the wooden sword in an anvil and rename it "Diamond" after my dreams of finding or crafting a diamond sword.

I've also been working harder at my job in the mine, so Freezie04 doubled my salary. So instead of having 30$ right now, I have 60$, although, if I want to buy my own house, I'll need a little more than that. Speaking of houses, I was walking around in the city when I noticed a small neighborhood of townhouses near my spawn point.

It was perfect, because this was the neighborhood Rainbowcreepers lived in. I figured I could probably live a few houses next to him, and, with great luck, I found a nice house just a few houses away.

After waiting for one week to get more money for the house, it finally came. I felt so happy when I saw 20 new dollars in my inventory. The address of the house I wanted to buy was 0015. I finally decided to buy it.

After I bought the house, I didn't have anything else to do, so I used the extra 10$ I had in my inventory to buy some food. I was tired of eating raw porkchops for a week. Another part of the 10$ was used to buy a few small decorations for my new house, like a flower pot and a painting.

The house was nice. You would walk in and there would be a foyer. To the right was a blank room, and to the left was another blank room. On the upstairs floor, there was a bedroom and bathroom on the right, and a kitchen and guest room on the left. I was surprised they could fit all of the rooms into a small townhouse.

I set all my supplies down into a chest and started to finally relax in the wool bed that came with the house.

However, it was within 4 minutes of my nap that I heard a loud knock on the door. I walked downstairs to open the door and see who it was. It was Rainbowcreepers.

"Hello, best friend!" He said. "I'm so happy you have a nice a house now. Here, I got you a welcome gift!" He smiled and handed me a cake.

"Thanks." I said. "Do you want to come in?"

"Really? Thank you so much!" He then proceeded to come in, with a wolf at his side. It barked loudly.

"Steve, say hello to Rufus. He's my wolf."

"Uh…hi." I replied. "So anyway, I'm glad you live in the same neighborhood as me. You're the only person I really know here."

"Then you should meet my friend. His name's Notchsbiggestfan. But everyone calls him Little Notch because he's like a genius in minecraft. You wanna meet him?"

"Sure, I guess."

"Good! I'll take you to him." Rainbowcreepers led me outside with his dogs and then led me down towards a path to the east side of the neighborhood. We only had to go about a block to get to his friend's house.

When we got there, Rainbowcreepers knocked on the door. After waiting a few minutes, someone answered the door.

He was a player who had a man with a beard skin, and wore a white coat. In some ways, he reminded me of Notch. I guess that's how he got his username, which hovered above his player: Notchsbiggestfan.

"Hello?" He asked. "Oh, it's you, Rainbowcreepers. Listen, I'm kind of busy using my enchantment table." He looked at me. "Who's your friend?" Notchsbiggestfan asked.

"Little Notch, this is Steve. Steve, Little Notch." Rainbowcreepers replied.

"Hi, Steve." Little Notch greeted me with a handshake. "I see you've met Rainbowcreepers. He's kind of crazy, isn't he?"

"Hey!" Rainbowcreepers yelled.

"I guess you could say that." I said.

"Well, it's great to meet you." Little Notch said. "I got to get back to enchanting my armor, 'kay?"

"Ok." I ended the conversation.

"Really cool guy." Rainbowcreepers said sarcastically.

"He seems pretty cool to me."

"Yeah, I guess. I'm gonna go home now."

"Ok, cya." I said, as he walked away with his dogs


	5. Chapter 5

When I woke up the next morning, I went outside to go exploring when I saw Rainbowcreepers standing outside the movie theater. I walked over to him.

"Whatcha doing?" I asked.

"Looking at the movies they're showing today." He said. There were signs up on the building listing movies. None of them look very good."

"Oh, ok. I'm gonna go exploring." I said.

"Ok."

But as I turned around, I saw someone pass by on the streets. It was a girl. She had brown hair and blue eyes, and wore a black t-shirt.

"Wow." I said.

"Oh, you saw the girl." Rainbowcreepers said. "Everyone says she's really pretty, mainly because she's the only girl in the city."

"She really is pretty." I said.

"Ooh, you like her, don't you?"

"No, I don't."

"Yeah, you do."

"No, I don't."

"Yeah, you do."

"I said I don't!" I got frustrated and attacked him, but when I did that, his dog teleported and starting murdering me. I stared hopelessly at the situation, ignoring the barking of his dog, and eventually, I was dead.

As you probably know, when I died, I respawned back to the main city. I just decided to carry on and keep exploring.

But I couldn't deny Rainbowcreepers. She was very pretty, and I wanted to meet her. But I didn't know how.

The next day, when I woke up, I decided to go down to the library.

When I got to the library, I started looking at books, and I didn't see a lot of interesting ones. Then, while I was looking at books, someone came rushing into the library, didn't watch where they were going, and came crashing down on top of me. I fell with a thud.

"Ow!" I yelled. I looked at who it was. It was the girl I had seen yesterday.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!" She said. "Really, I am!"

"It's fine," I said. "Everyone makes mistakes."

"Thanks." She smiled.

"…I-I'm Steve." I said.

"Sarah." She replied. "Sorry about that, I was just so excited to get this new book."

"Go ahead and check it out."

"Thanks."

I checked out the Herobrine book and sat down to start reading. Sarah started reading too. I opened my book:

Herobrine: by Freezie04

Chapter 1

"No one really knows if Herobrine is real except for Notch. The moderator of this server does not know whether to believe in him or not.

Herobrine is an evil player, and is said to be Notch's brother, which is not true. Herobrine is a player who griefs other players and worlds. He has more power than anyone can imagine."

Wow.

After reading a while longer, Sarah closed her book and left.

"Bye, Steve!" She waved as she walked away. I was so glad I got to meet her.


	6. Chapter 6

I was awoken by the sound of Rainbowcreepers screaming with joy.

"WOOHOO!" He screamed. What could he possibly be yelling about?

I hopped out of bed and went outside to see what all the fuss was.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Little Notch, Sarah, and I are going to Nightfall City: The greatest city ever!" He yelled, jumping up and down.

"Oh…" I sighed in disappointment.

"What's wrong?" Rainbowcreepers asked me. "…Oh, you don't get to go."

"Think again!" Sarah said as she walked in. She had a huge grin. "Steve, check your mailbox."

I opened my mailbox to find a piece of paper with my name on it. It was a pass to Nightfall City.

"Wow, thanks Sarah." I said. But while I was calm on the outside, I was pretty excited to go on the inside if it was as good as Rainbowcreepers said it was.

"Yeah, thanks." Little Notch said.

"Don't mention it." Sarah replied. "I had an extra ticket and I didn't know what to do with it, so I decided to give it to you, Steve, considering there's no one else I can think of. By the way, sorry about this, but you might have to pay for the food you buy, or any souvenirs you get."

"No problem…" I sighed.

"Thank you so much, Sarah, you are the best friend in the world!" Rainbowcreepers said as he ran up to Sarah and gave her a huge hug.

"No problem, Rainbowcreepers." She replied. "I've been looking forward to this trip for a while."

Rainbowcreepers jumped up and down saying, "We're going to the airport! We're going to the airport! We're going to the-"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. We're going to have to take the subway."

"What? But the subway takes way too long, and there are creepy people down there."

"It's not as bad as you think." She said. "All we have to do is ride in minecarts down a tunnel, and we're there."

"Well, forget it." Rainbowcreepers said. He turned around and crossed his arms. "I'm not taking the subway."

"Ok." Sarah shrugged. "I guess we'll have fun in Nightfall City without you."

Rainbowcreepers paused for a moment. Then he yelled, "Last one packed is a pig falling off a cliff!" He immediately ran inside his house and started getting his stuff. I decided to do the same thing.

I came out of my house a few minutes later, packed with only a few pieces of food. While I was putting my things in my chest (which was in a minecart), I looked over at Rainbowcreepers. He was stuffing diamonds into his chest.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm packing, what else?" He said.

"I mean, why are you bringing all those diamonds?"

"Well, Sarah was being really nice, saying she was gonna pay for everything. So I thought I should pay for my own things and save her some money."

"That's a good point." I agreed. "I was gonna pack some money, but I don't have any."

"You can borrow some of mine."

"Really? Well, thanks!"

"Don't mention it." He said. "What are friends for?"

He was right. That's exactly what friends are for. I was so glad I had finally made a friend.

"Steve! Are you ready?" I heard someone call in the distance. It was Sarah.

"Yeah, I'm ready." I said.

"Well, then let's go!" She got into the minecart in front, and I got in the one in back. Rainbowcreepers was in front of me. We started heading down to the subway.

"I can't wait until we get there." Said Rainbowcreepers.

I replied, "Me too." I really couldn't wait, but if there really were creepy people down in the subway like Rainbowcreepers said, then I'm going to be kind of scared.

When we got to the subway, Sarah was the only one eager to go in. Even Little Notch didn't look very happy to go down there.

"Oh, come on, guys." Sarah said. "There's nothing bad about the subway."

"Yeah, like you expect me to believe that." Rainbowcreepers said nervously. We all got into the minecarts. Although Little Notch and Rainbowcreepers may have experienced the subway in Minecraft before, I haven't, so I had no idea what they were talking about.

Sarah pushed a button and we started riding down the railway. I was waiting any second now to see what Rainbowcreepers was talking about when he said the subway was "scary".

Any second now.

Well, after about 10 minutes of waiting, I officially gave up on expecting the scary part of the subway to come. I think Rainbowcreepers gave up, too, considering he was now relaxing in his minecart.

"Hey guys…" Sarah said. "What's that?"

Rainbowcreepers, Little Notch and I looked over to see what was going on. At first I couldn't see, but then I figured out what was going on. There was a huge gap in the railway.

"AAAHHHH!" We all screamed as we fell down into a ravine. Maybe we wouldn't die, though.

Nevermind. There was a lava waterfall right below. We fell in, and before I died, I kept hearing the sounds of my friends trying to get out, but, sadly, they all died, too.


	7. Chapter 7

Again, as you probably know, we respawn when we die. So my friends and I all respawned. The thing is, we didn't respawn back in the main city.

"Ugh…" We all groaned.

"What happened?" Said Rainbowcreepers. "W-Wait a minute. I know we died, and that we respawned, but this doesn't look like home."

Sarah replied to him, "That's because this isn't home, Rainbowcreepers."

"Oh, well. That doesn't matter." He said. "We can easily get back- Wait a minute. I had my diamonds with me. And that means- they're all gone."

"Rainbowcreepers, please don't-"

"NOOOO!" He started yelling. Rainbowcreepers ran over to the lamppost in the city we were now in and started crying. "No! My babies! Why?! Oh, why?!"

"Will you guys just shut up!?" Someone said behind us. "I'm trying to get some sleep!"

We turned around, and saw an old man walking towards us, outside of an apartment building made out of obsidian with windows all around. I assumed that was where the man lived. The old man was slouching and groaning.

"Ugh!" He said. "Don't you know there are people here trying to sleep?"

"Don't you know old people don't play Minecraft?" Rainbowcreepers said.

"Shut up!" The old man yelled. "Now what are you all crying about?"

"We're not crying!" Rainbowcreepers said. "Our eyes are-"

Sarah elbowed him in the rib. "I'm so sorry sir, but we were wondering why we didn't respawn back to our houses when we died a minute ago."

"Oh, this isn't your hometown?" The old man said.

We all shook our heads no.

"Then it's probably the new mod the operator, Freezie04 just added where you respawn in a different city when you die."

Rainbowcreepers gasped. "WHY WOULD THEY ADD THAT?"

"Wait a minute." I said. "I died about a half hour ago, and respawned in my home city. How come I didn't respawn here or some other city when I died then?"

"That's because they just added it a few minutes ago." The old man said.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Rainbowcreepers yelled in frustration.

"The only way to get back… is through the Nether."


	8. Chapter 8

"What?" "Huh?" We all shook our heads in confusion.

"Let me explain." The old guy said. "You see, outside each city on this server, there's a special force-field that you can't walk through unless you have a special permit. However, when you're in the Nether, that force-field is deactivated and you can go anywhere you like."

"So, to get back to Sunnyside," Rainbowcreepers questioned the old man. "We have to go to hell?"

"Basically."

"Well, what genius came up with that idea?"

"Why don't you ask Freezie04, the moderator?"

I could hear Rainbowcreepers mumble profanity at the man, but I simply ignored and waited for the conversation to continue.

"So, uh…" I said. A few minutes had passed, and I couldn't take the silence anymore. "How do we get there?"

"It's pretty simple." The old man said. "I have plenty of obsidian in my old apartment upstairs." He pointed to the tall building behind him. It was red and looked old and abandoned, but still sturdy.

"Can we use it?" Rainbowcreepers asked.

"Sure. I guess I can help you guys out, as I have nothing better to do." The old man led us into the tall building. "By the way, my name is Daryl."

Daryl led us up to the fifth floor, the floor his apartment was on. We couldn't use the elevator, since it didn't work anymore, and no one bothered to fix it. When we got to Daryl's room, he opened the door for us. We all walked in.

The room was a good size, with a low ceiling. It had a bedroom and a kitchen, with a big glass window to look out at the city in. Not that there was anything to look at. The city was so abandoned and old that Daryl was probably one of the only players left living here.

"Welcome to my apartment." He said. "It's old, but I hope you like it." It was a nice apartment, besides the low ceiling. There was a nice dining table set out in the kitchen, with a refrigerator beside the wall, and countertops all across the wall to the left. In the bedroom, there were three bunk beds next to each other for six people to sleep in, with a pretend television on the other side of the room. It was almost like this guy was running a hotel in his apartment.

"You've got a nice place." Sarah said.

"Thank you." Daryl replied. "I try to make it nice for any visitors. Have a seat at the table, and I'll get some food out. You guys must be hungry."

Although we weren't that hungry, we accepted Daryl's offer and sat down. Daryl got out some mushroom stew and potatoes, and sitting in the middle of the table was a big cooked chicken. The food was cooked very well, and I forced myself to eat it because of the taste, even though I wasn't hungry.

That night, we all decided to fall asleep. Daryl advised that we get plenty of rest, and that we get properly prepared before going into the Nether. The way he put it, it sounded like a dangerous place. I had never been there before, so I was a little nervous when he was telling us about the dangers that were there.

I climbed into one of the bunk beds and started to fall asleep, trying hard not think about the horror of the Nether, or as Rainbowcreepers called it, hell.

"Steve." I heard Sarah say my name from the bed beside mine. I turned around to face her. "Are you nervous about the Nether?" She whispered.

I hesitated for a few seconds, before saying "No." I would've said yes, but I didn't want to sound scared. I wanted to be brave, but deep down in my mind, I knew I couldn't.

After a few more minutes of lying on the bed, I fell asleep.

I woke up a little early the next morning to see Rainbowcreepers standing in the doorway that led to the kitchen, stretching out of drowsiness. I couldn't blame him; I was tired too. He walked into the kitchen, and I got up. I stretched before going into the kitchen. When I walked in, I could see Daryl cooking something in the furnace. I bent over to see what it was.

"Hey, hey, don't get too close!" He yelled.

"Sorry." I said. I could see he was back to his grumpy self from when he met us yesterday.

"What are you cooking, anyway?" Rainbowcreepers asked.

"Mushroom Stew." Daryl said.

"For breakfast?" Rainbowcreepers questioned him.

"Well, what else are we supposed to eat?"

"Bread?"

Daryl paused and looked up for a moment, as if he was realizing his stupidity of not baking bread.

"Shut up." He said. Rainbowcreepers walked away.

"When will it be done?" I said.

"In a few minutes." Daryl replied. "Give it time, or it won't taste good."

I heard Sarah yawn behind me. I turned around.

"Good morning." She said.

"Good morning." Rainbowcreepers and I both replied.

"What smells?" She asked.

"Mushroom stew." Rainbowcreepers said, still annoyed at Daryl. "For some weird reason, Daryl decided to make mushroom stew for breakfast."

"Shut up." Daryl said again.

Sarah and I both sat down and started waiting for the food. I was thinking a lot about what we were going to do, or if we were going to be able to find Sunnyside City. I could tell Sarah was thinking the same thing, because she looked worried. Rainbowcreepers came over to the table, sat down, and broke the silence.

"So," He said. "Do you guys think we're gonna find Sunnyside?"

"I don't know." Sarah replied. "I'm still a bit worried."

"You guys will be fine." Daryl said, walking over to the table with mushroom stew in his hands. He set it down on the table. "I know how to navigate my way through the Nether."

"You do?" Rainbowcreepers asked. "But… how?"

"I went there a long time ago. It was a dangerous place, but I was young and strong, so I could-"

"So, you're telling me you're weak now?"

"Let me finish!" Daryl yelled. Rainbowcreepers quickly started eating his mushroom stew.

"Ahem." Daryl continued. "I was young, so I could fight my way through all the scary mobs, like blazes, zombie pigmen, and… other stuff." He sat down. "Let's start breakfast, shall we?"

Little Notch walked into the room, sat down, and we started eating breakfast without a word.

After breakfast, Rainbowcreepers was excited to go to the Nether, unlike me, but got disappointed when Daryl said we would need to get help.

"It's the only way we can make it." Daryl said. "With more people, we'll be able to find your city faster."

"That sounds like a good plan." Little Notch said.

"I guess." Rainbowcreepers said.

"Come on, guys." Sarah said. "It's time to get ready for the Nether.


	9. Chapter 9

We were all getting ready. Little Notch was in the kitchen, enchanting his armor. Sarah was in the kitchen, too, making a sword. Rainbowcreepers and I were both in the bedroom. Rainbowcreepers was practicing his sword swings, while I was putting on some diamond armor, hoping he wouldn't accidentally hit me. When we were both finished, we went to the kitchen.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked Daryl, who was enchanting his sword.

"I told you, I've got it all figured out." He said. "We're going to head over to a village that's not too far from this city. There's no way we can go to the Nether alone, so we're going to get some help. I can use a pass to break through the force-field, but we're still going to have to fight a lot of hostile mobs on the way to the village, so be careful."

I gulped.

"Wait, if you can use a pass to break through the force-field, why not just use a pass to break through the force-field and get us back to our city?" Rainbowcreepers asked.

"I would, but you would need multiple passes to get through so many cities. By the way, when we're traveling to the village, don't die."

"Why not?"

"So we don't die, genius." Sarah punched him.

"Well, that," Daryl continued. "But I just hope you guys haven't died too many times."

"Oh, right." Sarah replied. "We don't want to lose too many lives."

"Wait, what?" I asked. "Losing lives? I thought you could respawn whenever you died."

"Not exactly." Daryl told me. "This whole server is meant to represent real life. That means, you can't die however many times you want. You get lives. 11 lives, to be exact. Does anyone know how many lives they have?"

"7." Little Notch said.

"5." Sarah replied.

"5 or 6." Rainbowcreepers said.

"I think I have 3." I finally said.

Daryl gasped. "3? That doesn't sound too good."

"Why not?" I asked. "I should be able to fight some hostile mobs with 3 lives."

"Do you know what we're going to be doing?" Sarah told me. "Not only are we going to 'fight some hostile mobs', but we'll also be going to the Nether! Are you sure you'll be okay?"

When she mentioned the Nether, I stared at the floor. Was I going to be able to make it?

"Well, all we can do is hope. Come on, let's go." Daryl said, and we headed downstairs.

When we reached outside, it was the middle of the night. It looked cloudy, like it was going to rain.

"This is the direction we'll be going in to get to the village." Daryl pointed north of the building we were staying in.

"Okay." Sarah said. I could hear a hint of nervousness in her voice. "Let's go."

I got my sword out. Rainbowcreepers patted me on the back.

"It'll be okay, little guy." He laughed and treated me like a complete beginner. Rainbowcreepers was right for thinking I was nervous; I was. I didn't even know we had multiple lives, and now I was going to go across a field full of hostile mobs, and to the Nether with 3 lives. Once again, I gulped, and we started to head to the village.

I threw my sword at a creeper and it smashed into the ground. Daryl had used his pass to break through the force-field. We had just entered the huge field separating Daryl's city and the village, and things were already getting hectic. I took my sword out of the ground.

"Come on, let's go!" Sarah yelled. I started running, preparing for anything in my path. Four skeletons gained up on me as soon as I started running, and I swung my sword. Their bones fell to the ground. I picked a couple up and then I heard an explosion. Rainbowcreepers was on the ground when I turned around. A creeper had just blown up in front of him, and he was trying to get up.

I grabbed my friend, and we both tried to catch up to Sarah and Little Notch. Daryl was trying to catch up, too, but was still ahead of us. It felt like we were already in the Nether; it seemed as if the monsters were trying to gain up on just Rainbowcreepers and I. I swung my sword at another skeleton. Rainbowcreepers was trying to fight off a couple zombies; then I saw a creature behind us.

"Creeper!" I yelled. Rainbowcreepers turned around and shot an arrow at it. The creeper fell back, but was still ready to fight more than ever. We started running as fast as we could; I wasn't going to take my chance losing another life trying to fight off a creeper.

We eventually caught up to Daryl. Daryl looked worn out, just like Rainbowcreepers and I, but we all kept running after a quick apple and a piece of bread.

"How are you guys holding up?" Daryl asked, out of breath, but still running.

"Not too well." I said. "I've already lost half my health, and I think Rainbowcreepers has lost a little less than that.

"I have 6… and a half… hearts left." Rainbowcreepers said, out of breath. "Can't we stop?"

"There's no way!" Daryl yelled. "The monsters will kill us if we stop. We have to keep going!" Rainbowcreepers and I nodded, and we started running again. I swung my sword at several more skeletons, and Rainbowcreepers shot several more creepers.

Just as we were catching up, I saw a creeper to my right. I quickly turned and threw my sword at it, and the creeper hissed and fell to the ground. I felt happy about that until I saw my sword broken into pieces on the ground. My sword was gone.

"Uh, guys…" I tried to tell Daryl and Rainbowcreepers.

"There's no time!" Rainbowcreepers yelled. "Come on!" He grabbed me by the arm and started running towards a village we could see in the distance, dragging me along with him. At that point, all I could do was punch or kick any monsters that snuck up behind Rainbowcreepers, so I did, and after what seemed like hours, we reached the village.

I saw Sarah and Little Notch waiting by a lamppost in the village. They looked impatient, but I was too worn out to walk any faster.

"We're… here." Rainbowcreepers gasped, out of breath. He had run out of arrows, and I was about to warn him about a creeper sneaking up behind him, but he knocked it to the ground without even turning around.

"Nice timing." Sarah said. "We've been waiting here for a while."

"Well, Sarah, excuse me if we're not expert fighting champions like you guys." Rainbowcreepers said.

Sarah sighed. "Whatever."

"Daryl, what's the plan again?" Little Notch asked.

"I told you," Daryl replied. "We're here to get some help for the Nether. I know two people who can help us. They used to live in my city, but they moved because the place was getting old and run-down."

"Do you know their names?"

"Yes. Tommy and Bridgette. Unfortunately, though, I don't know which house they live in in this village."

"Well, then let's start looking for 'em." Sarah said, and we headed for the village houses.


	10. Chapter 10

"Hello?" An old woman answered the door after Daryl knocked on it. She looked bored, like she didn't want us to be at her house at midnight.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Wrong house." Daryl said, and closed the door. We started walking through the village again.

"So you have no idea where these people are?" Rainbowcreepers asked.

"No," Daryl said, annoyed. "But it shouldn't be too hard to find them. There aren't many houses in this village." Well, if there's one thing Daryl didn't know about, it's this village. I could clearly see that there were more than a dozen houses, so I knew this would take longer than I first thought.

Daryl knocked on another door.

"Bob's Enchantment Shop. What do you need?" The man at the door asked us. He was tall, and wore a black apron.

"Sorry, wrong house." Daryl said. Afterwards, we tried knocking on the doors of a few more houses without finding any luck. We were thinking about giving up on finding these people, but Daryl wanted to keep looking.

"We've already searched almost every house." I said, sitting on a doorstep.

"We just have to keep looking." Daryl told me. He knocked on another door loudly. A brunette male answered the door. He was wearing a striped shirt and black pants.

"What do you want?" He yelled.

"Tommy!" Daryl hugged the guy forcefully. The guy tried to escape his grip.

"Tommy?" We all asked.

"Don't call me that." The guy said. "It's GummyWarrior."

"What kind of name is that?" Daryl looked disgusted at his username. "You disgust me. I'm calling you Tommy."

"Fine, whatever. Why'd you knock on my door? I haven't seen you in months."

"Tommy, meet Rainbowcreepers, Little Notch, Sarah, and Steve. I'm helping them get back to their main city, and we need your help."

"Hey," Tommy waved at us. We waved back. "And no. I will not help you."

"Come on!" Daryl desperately yelled. "We need all the help we can get."

"What's in it for me?"

Daryl hesitated for a moment. "I'll give you a new diamond sword." He asked.

"Two diamond swords."

"Fine, two diamond swords."

"We have a deal." Tommy nodded his head, and shook hands with Daryl. We started heading to the next house.

"So, Tommy." Sarah said. "Why'd you separate from Daryl?"

"He was just giving me a bit of a hard time." Tommy sighed. "He acted like I would never be able to survive on my own. So I moved out into the village, where I thought he would never find me."

"Thank goodness I did." Daryl said.

"Yeah, but I've been pretty good at surviving on my own. I'm almost an expert." Tommy stood tall.

"Oh, yeah?" Rainbowcreepers said. "Really? How long have you been out on your own. I bet you haven't even been out here for six months!"

"Two years." Tommy said. Rainbowcreepers stared at him for a second and didn't say another word. Daryl knocked on another door. A girl with blonde hair in a white hoodie answered the door.

"Hey, Bridgette!" Daryl yelled and hugged her.

"Hi, Daryl." Bridgette was happy to see Daryl too, unlike Tommy. "I haven't seen you in months. What brings you here?"

"I have a request for you. These young people behind me – Little Notch, Rainbowcreepers, Sarah, and Steve – need to go back to their own city through the nether. Will you help us get there?" He pleaded.

"Sure." She said. "I'll get my stuff."

"That was easy." Little Notch said as Bridgette walked back into her house. It was an average village house, but still very small, just like Tommy's. We waited for a few minutes, and then Bridgette walked out with her stuff.

"Let's go to the Nether." She said with a smile. I wondered if these people were going to be helpful.

We took the trip back to Daryl's apartment, which wasn't as hard as when we went to the village, mostly because by the time we had gotten Bridgette to come with us, it was daytime. We walked back to Daryl's apartment. Tommy and Bridgette didn't need a tour of his apartment, so I assumed they were familiar with it.

"Now what?" Rainbowcreepers asked as soon as we walked in.

"We'll probably go to the Nether in two days." Daryl said. "For now, get some rest, get your stuff ready, and train."


	11. Chapter 11

The sound of Rainbowcreeper's yawning awoke me. Almost immediately, I sat up in the bed. Rainbowcreepers finished stretching and went into the kitchen as I started thinking about the day. We all had one day to train and do whatever we needed to do for the trip to the Nether. We had plenty of supplies already, yet I still felt nervous.

As I was about to get out of bed, I heard Sarah wake up too. She yawned and turned to face me.

"Good morning." She said with a small smile, despite being tired.

"Good morning." I replied. I got out of bed. I hadn't thought about Sarah in a while. I still liked her, but I hadn't recently thought about her as much. I couldn't put my finger on exactly why I liked her, but she was beautiful inside and out, in a way.

Sarah got out of bed, and I followed her into the kitchen. Little Notch was on his knees, looking at whatever he was cooking in the furnace. I looked around and didn't see Daryl, Tommy, or Bridgette anywhere.

"Where's Daryl?" I asked Little Notch.

"Downstairs." He said. "He asked me to cook breakfast this morning, so we're having fish." Little Notch brought his face to the furnace and smelled it. He sighed with delight.

"Well, that's better than mushroom stew." Rainbowcreepers said. He sat down in one of the chairs at the table. I sat down across from him, and Sarah sat next to Rainbowcreepers.

"What are you all going to do today?" Sarah asked.

"I'll be practicing my archery." Rainbowcreepers said, leaning back in his chair with his feet on the table. "I found something I can use for target practice in an abandoned building across the street."

"And I'm going to stock up on food." Little Notch said, still cooking the fish.

"What about you, Steve?" Sarah asked me. The problem was that I didn't know what I was going to do. I guess training was a good thing to do, considering I wasn't very strong.

"Training." I said. "I'll be training."

"I'm probably just going to get some food. I saw a good farm at the village where we saw Tommy and Bridgette."

I looked over and saw Little Notch take the finished fish out and bring it over to the table. He set it down on a dark oak wooden slab.

"Eat up." He said as if he didn't even try on the fish. As we were about to start eating, I heard footsteps walking across the hallway. I could overhear a conversation going on between Daryl and Tommy. I think Bridgette was there, too.

"I want you to respect our guests!" Daryl slightly raised his voice.

"But they seem so inexperienced! I don't deserve to work with people like them." Tommy replied.

"We have to do this for them." Bridgette said. "They don't have any other help!"

"Please, I really need you guys to do this for me!" Daryl yelled. His voice had a desperate tone. "Don't you remember what happened last time we went into the Nether?" The conversation stopped for a second, giving me time to ponder while everyone else at the table showed no reaction. What happened to Daryl that he wasn't telling us about?

"This is ridiculous!" Bridgette spoke up. "Tommy, only a little kid would argue about something like this!"

"You know how immature Tommy is." Daryl said. He turned to Tommy. "You're being very unreasonable about this. You don't even know who they are."

"I know that they are inexperienced. Don't you remember what that blue creeper guy said? They've only been here six months!" Tommy referred to Rainbowcreepers in an insulting tone. I looked to the "blue creeper guy" sitting across from me. He was still completely oblivious to the conversation.

"Could everyone please be quiet! This is stupid!" Bridgette said.

"Yeah, I can see that." Daryl agreed. "You really need to shape up, or just shut up! I've never met someone so immature and ridiculous!"

"Wow." Tommy said. "I can't believe you even said that. Now I know why I ran away from you. And I'll never regret that." I looked up in shock and sorrow for Daryl, as he stopped talking for a few seconds. Even Sarah and Little Notch were looking outside the door, although the three were not visible. I was surprised Rainbowcreepers was still completely oblivious. Daryl, Tommy, and Bridgette walked in without a word.

"Hey, guys!" Rainbowcreepers sat up. "We're having fish!" He waved at them with a smile. I could tell he didn't overhear the conversation like I did. Daryl and Tommy sat down, not making eye contact with each other, their arms crossed. The only difference being that Tommy looked angry, while Daryl had a severe look of disappointment on his face. Bridgette sat there, looking concerned and clueless on what to do. She grabbed a piece of fish and took a bite.

Everything was silent for the rest of the meal, the only sounds being the munching of cooked fish. Even the animals outside were so quiet, it made me doubt they were even there. Everyone ate their fish a bit slow; even Rainbowcreepers didn't show his dramatic and enthusiastic attitude while he ate.

The chair beside me moved, and I looked right to see Daryl getting up and heading for the door outside the apartment, not giving any of us another look.

"Where are you going?" Little Notch finally broke the silence that had lasted almost 10 minutes.

Daryl stopped walking and paused for a moment. "I'm going to sleep." He said quietly, his back still turned to us.

"Uh, the bedrooms are that way." Rainbowcreepers said, pointing to his right. He took a last bite of fish.

"I'm not sleeping in here this time." Daryl walked out. Rainbowcreepers and I looked at each other in surprise.

"What happened?" Rainbowcreepers asked Tommy, who was now looking down with his elbows on the table.

"It's none of your business." Tommy mumbled, shaking his head. He didn't even bother to look at Rainbowcreepers.

"But-" Sarah started to talk.

"I said it's none of your business!" Tommy yelled and got up to walk out the door.

"Rude." Rainbowcreepers remarked, glaring at the door Tommy had already walked out of.

"I'm just going to stock up on food." Little Notch quietly grabbed the iron sword off the wall and walked out.

"I'll come with you." Sarah said, trying to get herself out of a quiet, awkward situation. She grabbed the bow off the wall and practically ran out of the apartment.

"Wanna go and practice archery with me?" Rainbowcreeper's face lit up. I was surprised how quickly he snapped out of his concern. "Come on, let's go!" He said. I decided to go with him as I had nothing better to do. Practicing archery did count as "training", after all.

I followed behind Rainbowcreepers as he grabbed the door handle to a small, brick building. He swung it open, and we instantly coughed at a dusty fog that had probably been building up for years. Although my eyes were irritated and I could only somewhat see Rainbowcreepers, I wasn't surprised. The whole city looked as if it had been abandoned for even longer.

"Okay." Rainbowcreepers coughed. "This is the archery place I was telling you about. I would grab the bow on the wall, but I can't see through all this stupid dust." I wiped my eyes, and moved the dust out of my way to see.

Three archery boards were still sitting in the back of the room. I looked down to see the floor for the first time. My feet rubbed against blue carpet.

"Here's the bow." Rainbowcreepers grabbed a bow on the wall. I jumped when I looked closer to see it wasn't a bow at all.

"Rainbowcreepers…" I pointed to the wall, my hand trembling with fear. I had never known that one could be so huge.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going as fast as I can." Rainbowcreepers snapped at me. He turned his head back around and yelped at the sight. I quickly turned his arm away from a huge spider web. My efforts to keep calm backfired when a giant spider in the wall practically stabbed me.

"Steve!" Rainbowcreepers yelled. I stumbled back in pain and held my arm, wincing in pain.

"What… is that?" I said, hoarsely and slowly opening my eyes. I started to tear up again, this time, not being from the dust in the room.

Rainbowcreepers tried to rip the spider web off the wall but only tore it halfway when the giant spider jumped off the wall and tackled him. I was hyperventilating trying to think so fast.

Trying to keep my eyes focused on Rainbowcreepers, I grabbed the only sword in my inventory, Diamond, and stabbed the spider, only somewhat hurting it. It let out a loud hiss. I swung the sword at its eye, and it fell back. It was so loud, I plugged my ears.

As I was trying to pick up my sword again, Rainbowcreepers shot an arrow at it from the bow he must have grabbed off the wall when I wasn't looking.

"Take this, you slimy beast!" Rainbowcreepers shot an arrow at the spider. Rainbowcreepers and I stared in shock after we saw it disappear. I was too stunned to say a word.

"Did it just… disappear?" Rainbowcreepers said. "It just went… 'Poof!'" He spread his arms. "And then it's gone. Wiped out from existence." I could hardly keep eye contact with him.

"How could a spider be that big?" I asked, staring at where it once was so hard, my eyes felt like they were to pop out of my head any second. "Is that normal?" I turned to Rainbowcreepers.

"Now that you mention it, no." He said, scratching his head. "I've never seen a spider so big." We were both silent for a few seconds. I took in some of the time to breathe normally again.

"I'm just going to go back to Daryl's apartment." Rainbowcreepers said softly. He walked out.

"But what about archery practicing?" I said. He paused for a second before turning to face me.

"We don't need it right now." He sighed. "This building is a death trap anyway."

"Won't we get hurt in the Nether if we don't train?" I questioned him. I still felt entirely nervous about going to the Nether for the first time.

"It doesn't matter!" He yelled. "I don't want to go in that building anyway. I don't want to be in any of these buildings. All I really want to get out of this godforsaken place!" He rubbed his forehead and sighed again. I raised my eyebrows. I had never seen him so frustrated.

"I'm sorry." He said, walking away. I looked at Diamond one last time, holding it tight in my hand before slowly following behind Rainbowcreepers.


End file.
